Plus Programme Events

We run lots of activities and events for the students with access to the Plus Programme. They are an ideal opportunity for you to meet like-minded students, have fun and get support in several areas of University life.

Term Time Events:

Careers and Employability

Square Enix Insight Day - Wednesday 6th February

12:00-17:00 (not including travel to and from London)

Square Enix are responsible for developing and publishing
many of the worlds top video game brands today such as Tomb Raider, Deus Ex,
Final Fantasy, Hitman, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts and many more!

This Insight Day is an opportunity for Plus Programme
students of all years and disciplines to travel down to London (for free) to
find out about careers in the video game industry. We cant stress enough that
this opportunity isnt just for coders as programming is just one career path
available at Square Enix! This is a great chance to make some early contacts in
the industry and to find out if its right for you.

We will be covering the cost of return train travel to
London on the February 6th, so you will need to be free for the
whole day. We will likely leave Leeds around 8.30-9am and will return at
approximately 8.15pm. Lunch will be provided by Square Enix.

Leeds Civil Service Insight Day - Wednesday 27th February

10:00-15:30

If you're interested in working for the Civil Service after University, don't miss this opportunity! It's a full day working with the Leeds Civil Service finding out all about the variety of the work involved, to meet current staff and make some early career contacts, to get involved in some activities and to ask any questions you might have about the Civil Service as a whole. The planned timetable is viewable on the signup page below, although this is subject to change.

Andrew Oates is an alumnus of the University who now works for Deloitte, one of the 'Big 4' professional services companies. Andrew is coming to the University to run an exclusive session for Plus Programme students, where he will host a group session looking at different areas of work in the industry (data/analytics/forensic accounting/fintech/Aimtech) and tips for applying for jobs. His area of specialism is using technology and data to prevent business crime and fraud which will form part of the discussion as well as the social impact his work has on preventing business crime.

Andrew is a Partner with Deloittes Forensic
Technology (FT) team, part of the Forensic practice. He has over 14 years
experience in the field of technology risk and specialises in helping clients
understand and get value from their data. He has worked with a wide range of
clients in the Financial, Energy, Retail and Consumer industries, identifying
and solving complex data issues in the UK, USA, Hong Kong and Switzerland.

Andrew will also be joined by one of the recent
grads from his team.

Andrew is a fantastic contact to have at Deloitte, don't miss this small group round-table style discussion session where you can ask him any questions you might have. Lunch will also be provided!

1-1 Mentoring with HSBC - Wednesday 13th March

09:00-16:00 (Timing does not take into account travel to and from London)

This day is an unbelievable opportunity to receive 1-1 mentoring from two members of staff from HSBC's Principal Investment Team in London. This will be at HSBC's Head Office in Canary Wharf and will also involve a presentation from Senior Managers at HSBC and a networking lunch. The Plus Programme Team will cover the cost of travel. This is aimed at all students who are interested in a career in Banking or Finance.

Staff Profiles:

David Hyslop

Associate Director, Principal Investments

David joined HSBCs Principal Investments team in February 2015. Prior to HSBC, David made direct private equity investments into Sub-Saharan African and Southern Asian corporates. David completed a PhD at Cambridge University.

Jon Zhu

Principal Investments

Jon joined HSBCs investment banking division in 2012, initially working in Mergers & Acquisitions before moving to the Principal Investments team focused on corporate private equity and sustainable/social impact investing. Jon graduated from Durham University with a degree in Finance, and is passionate about helping students gain an insight into the world of banking.

We are offering the opportunity for 5 Plus Programme students to meet with University of Leeds alumnus and successful manager, Tom Allchurch, in a face-to-face mentoring session to help you to develop your employability skills.

Tom particularly wants to help students who are interested in business, engineering, legal/accountancy/ and HR type professions so if you are interested in being considered to take part, please complete the application form below.

Who is Tom?

Tom Allchurch is a Leeds University educated mining engineer. Originally from Birmingham he has spent most of his career based in Yorkshire working in the coal mining industry.

He started his first business in 1998 growing it to 500 people and £80 million turnover. Tom's experience is fairly rounded having managed through the full life cycle of business from start up, growth, acquisition, becoming a publicly owned company and then sadly through to closure as the coal industry has collapsed in the UK. Tom is currently Chairman of Numberjuice Ltd, a Fintech orientated accountancy business.

Throughout his time in business, Tom's focus has been in developing the people in the team to see them fulfil their potential both for themselves and the company. Tom currently mentors through 'leaders in residence' at the business school and through the entrepreneurship scheme at the university.

Careers Centre Events

Academic Skills

Thinking of PG Study (Face to Face) - Wednesday 30th January

13:00-14:00

Dont rush to say not for me until you know more about the possibilities! Join us to find out more about what it is, whats available, the finances and what its like to be a postgraduate student. This event is in collaboration with the Lifelong Learning Centre, whose events are open to Plus Programme students.

Thinking of PG Study (Webinar) - Tuesday 5th February

17:30-18:30

This Discover Postgrad webinar from the University of Leeds will give you an insight in to studying at Postgraduate level including; where to start researching postgraduate courses, how to apply, give you information about funding and let you hear from current Masters students and learn about their experiences of studying at Postgraduate level. And best of all, (because its a webinar!) you can tune in and ask questions live from anywhere!

Shut Up and Write Your Dissertation - Various Dates

If you easily get distracted, find that you are a professional at procrastination, and struggle to focus, Shut Up and Write Your Dissertation sessions provide a quiet, supportive space to get down to work. With free refreshments!

This is not a conventional workshop  there will not be any teaching on how to improve your writing.

What to bring: your laptop, notes, paper, pens, books, thoughts. The workshop is not held in a computer cluster, so you need to bring your own laptop/device.

Skills@Library Events

Skills@Library is a fantastic service that will help give you a boost in a whole host of academic skills ranging from maths classes to essay writing techniques. There are group workshops and 1-1 sessions available. It's all free, and just think - an extra one or two marks on an exam/essay could make all the difference to your degree classification!

Health and Wellbeing

Counselling Centre Events

Every term, the Counselling Centre at Leeds University offers a huge range of one-off workshops open to all students. You absolutely do not have to be involved in counselling already, or even feel like you need it, to attend - these workshops are open and welcoming for all students. They're all free, and can be signed up for in the Counselling Centre up to a week before they take place.

An introduction to the counselling service: An information session about the groups/ workshops/ self-help resources available to support students throughout their studies.

Step into Sophrology: We covered the costs for a number of students to attend this holistic therapy inspired by Western and Eastern techniques. It combines gentle body movements, breathing exercises, concentration and visualisation techniques.

Social

Estranged/Care Leaver Student Pub Lunch - Friday 15th March

12:30-13:30

If you're estranged from your family or have experience of being in care, come along to this free meal out at The Library Pub! It's a great chance to meet and socialise with other students who are in a similar situation and also to find out more about the support the specialist support The Plus Programme can offer you.

Term 2 Social - Date TBC

More info coming soon

Get Out Get Active Events

It's back! Get Out, Get Active is a great scheme available to all students at Leeds with a huge range of physical activities on offer. Just like last term, we're happy to be able to pay for some Plus Programme students to attend these trips.

This term, we've slightly altered the way you apply for these trips when we're covering the cost. Now, you take a look at the GOGA website to find any events you like, then send us an email with your Student ID number, name and details of the trip to apply! Simple as that! Any questions, just drop us an email or give us a call.

Previous Social Events also include:

Plus Programme Christmas Celebration: We took students bowling in Leeds and then went for a mega buffet!

Boardgame evening: We got together to play the classics; chess, monopoly and snakes and ladders!

Summer Social: To celebrate the summer we hired out the Terrace Bar for food and drink in the Union and then went along to some great stand-up comedy

We also ran a great alternative Fresher's week, including Laser Tag, city tours, food tasting and meals out.

Other

Laidlaw Scholarship Application Workshop: Wednesday 20th February

13:00-14:00

There are 25 annual Laidlaw Scholarships that provide funding to enable you to develop leadership and research skills through a range of personal development activities and two six week periods of project work throughout your time at Leeds.

The Laidlaw Scholarship allows you to pursue research on a topic you're interested in, develop your leadership skills and improve your knowledge, skills and experience to increase your employability.

This workshop will give you advice on how to complete your application form.

LeadNow! Webinar: Wednesday 6th March

More info coming soon

LeadNow! Workshop: Wednesday 20th March

More info coming soon

Student Steering Group Event: Wednesday 27th March

Time TBC

The Plus Programme's Student Steering Group is made up of 10 Plus Programme students with a strong interest in the direction of the scheme and how to make it work best for its students. Every year, they plan and coordinate an event catered purely to Plus Programme students. This is always one of the highlights of the Plus Programme calendar, so make sure to stick it in your diaries!

More info and signup link to come soon.

Plus Programme Highlights:

Read on to find out about some of the best events we've held and how similar events could help you. Check back for regular updates!

Term 1 2018/19

Kicking off the 2018/19 academic year, we ran eleven different events for all Plus Programme students in Term 1. We organised a wide variety of sessions to help Plus Programme students get one step ahead on their applications to be a Student Host, to develop their leadership skills with LeadNow and to smash any upcoming assessment centres for graduate roles. We also gave our students the chance to be mentored by professionals from sectors such as banking or arts recruitment. We took a group of students down to London for a cracking insight day at Populus, one of the biggest market research companies in the UK. Of course, what term would be complete without our famous socials? We ran one of our highly challenging Pub Quizzes at The Library and also treated Plus Programme students to a congratulatory end of term night at Junkyard Golf. Term 1 is going to be tough to beat!

LeadNow Webinars - Why I Don't Get Stuff Done

Do you wish you knew how to be more productive and procrastinate less? Do you always leave things last minute and find it difficult to manage the stress which comes with this?

Todd at LeadNow hosted a webinar exclusively to University of Leeds Plus Programme students to help them manage themselves and their time more effectively.

During this one hour webinar, Todd guided students through discussions to improve their productiveness, and limiting their distractions. Below are the videos of those webinars for you to watch back. Enjoy and hope to see you at some future LeadNow events!

Freshers+ 2018

Every year, we offer a full scheme of events over freshers for all students with access to the Plus Programme. In 2018, we put on more events than ever before, with some of the highlights including:

- An evening at Nandos and Laserzone

- A bowling and Red Hot Buffet double bill

- A board games morning at the Kitty Cafe

- A pub quiz

- A 5-A-Side kickabout at The Edge

- Fully paid up spots on Get Out, Get Active's hike at Malham Cove

These events are a great opportunity to find out more about what the Plus Programme can offer you, to meet fellow students and, most importantly, to have a great time. We also ran lots of events introducing our service as well as those of crucial departments like the Counselling and Wellbeing team.

All Freshers+ events were free too - giving you the perfect opportunity to continue the fun of Freshers while giving your wallet a rest!

Inspire. Empower

The Plus Programme Steering Group is a bunch of fantastically dedicated Plus Programme students helping to develop the scheme and give students a voice in its future. As a major part of the Plus Programme revolves around putting on events for our students, it seemed only right that we put an event in the hands of the Steering Group! From initial concept through to final delivery, Inspire. Empower. was led by the students.

Taking place just before the summer exam season started (and as its title may suggest), the event was designed to get Plus Programme students fully motivated for their exams. After quick introductions from the Steering Group themselves, the event went right into its main event, an inspiring talk from motivational speaker Karen Cruise of Cruise Coaching Consultancy. Karen relayed her journey from humble beginnings to incredible success and how she went from having not an ounce of self-belief to brimming with confidence.

Her background gave great credibility to her career path and left all our guests transfixed. After her thoroughly rousing speech, Karen even stuck around to enjoy some delicious hot food with the attendees and offer them some personal tips for success in their exams and futures.

Nestle Graduate Assessments Insight Day

The concept of 'graduate assessments' is likely an alien one to many students. The words bring with them a certain amount of mystery and dread, people often sharing horror stories of whole-day long assessment centres where swathes of completely hirable candidates are brutally ejected at various points of the day because they weren't deemed to have contributed enough in an abstract group task about what kind of biscuit they'd be.

Luckily, these stories are rarely the case. However, that's not to say that graduate assessments are easy - they're tough and highly competitive. That's why we took a small group of Plus Programme students to the Nestle factory in York to have an insight day designed to demystify graduate assessments. Hosted by two recent Leeds alumni who are on Nestle's own graduate scheme themselves, our students were taken step by step through how to apply for graduate schemes and how to ace the assessment days.

The students even had a chance to practice the infamous group tests in front of Nestle's own graduate assessors, learning how to impress when given tasks designed to take you out of your comfort zone. After a delicious lunch, our hosts ran a Q&A, which gave the students a chance to ask as detailed questions as possible about both Nestles graduate scheme and schemes in other companies.

The questions were both frequent and insightful, with the answers being incredibly helpful. Feedback from the students, even from those with little interest in working for Nestle, was very positive and they now feel as ready as they'll ever be to tackle those assessment centres without fear! To cap off what was already a great day, our hosts even took us on a tour of the KitKat factory (where over five million KitKats are produced every day!).